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Old 08-20-2022, 03:11 AM   #21
DavidAndDonna
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Originally Posted by Rusty E View Post
My wife and I are headed out in our TT for a couple weeks from our home in Las Vegas to Waco, Texas, on to Laurel, MS, and then back home. We plan on staying at RV Sites in the bigger cities for a couple days of our trip, but mostly boondocking along the way and back.

I had intended to just fill up our fresh water tanks and then hitting the road, but have watched a couple vids saying this is a bad idea?

We have a 27 gallon fresh water tank and 30 gallon gray/black tanks.

Thoughts?

My wife prefers a shower each morn and we intend on using our “facilities at each boondocking spot.

This is our first “long” trip in our trailer (new owners since May 2022, first TT). Thanks for your thoughts.
We just got back from a 3 month trip to Alaska and we boondocked every chance we could, which was ALOT. We had a total of about 44 camp sites and about 30 of those were boondocking. The trip was planned around boondocking, we prefer this type of camping. Knock on wood we never experienced any sort of problems hauling a full tank of fresh water. Be conservative with your water, and have fun!
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Old 08-20-2022, 04:29 AM   #22
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As far as the trailer goes, you should have no problems traveling with a full tank of water. However, you may experience some odd feelings from the steering wheel and the seat, and even braking if you travel with full tanks.

I've had 4 different trailers and I traveled with water and without water in the tanks. In my earlier days I always drained the fresh water tank and the water heater between home and campsite, or campsite to the next campsite. One time I forgot to drain everything and the entire feel of the trailer was different. It took several more trips to figure out there was definitely a slightly different towing experience with tanks full and with tanks empty.

After 4 trailers, and thousands and thousands of miles on the road, I can tell by the way the trailer handles how much water is remaining in my tanks. The movement of the water in the tanks is felt when accelerating, stopping, and going around curves.

There's nothing wrong with this, it's just a different "feeling" in the trailer I had to get use to.

Now, after all these years, I travel with minimum water. Of course, we don't boomdock either. But we have traveled many, many times with all full tanks as dump stations, or even dumping at home was more convenient. And depending on where our next destination would be, determined if we needed to reach that destination with fuller tanks, or if we could fill up immediately when we got there.

So, what I"m saying is... if you are use to towing with all empty tanks, don't be surprised if you experience some weird behavior you've not experienced when your trailer tanks are full. Again, there's nothing wrong. It's just that water sloshing around make the tow feel "different".
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Old 08-20-2022, 04:29 PM   #23
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Best not to go by guess work on a boondocking trip. I measured the amount of water needed for a shower. First point the shower in a bucket of known size and get out your watch to get gpm. Then time your shower. Next figure out the exact size of your water tank. Make sure the hot water tank is filled, drain the water tank, put a flowmeter on your hose, $15-20 from amazon, and measure how much you can actually put in the tank.

I've found this works a lot better than just looking the tank level light. You can also have somebody watching the water tank level indicator while you fill the tank and note how much water has been added when the indicator light changes. When you are out boondocking You can check how you are doing when the level indicator drops to 2/3 and then 1/3 full.
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Old 08-21-2022, 08:22 AM   #24
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Fill your FW tank and use as intended. My placard on side of trailer has payload including FW & HW tanks filled and grey and black empty.

We use our toilet at rest stops and fuel stops to avoid public facilities.
How are you going to travel with empty FW tank? You get somewhere or pull over and have No water to wash or flush? Ridiculous.
It is safe to travel with FW in the tank.
We wouldn't have bought if Keystone had advised no FW in tank or the weight placard didn’t include water.
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Old 08-21-2022, 07:36 PM   #25
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We carry about ten gallons in the fresh water tank when we are on the road. We also have a 30 gallon RV water tank in the back of our truck and then pump in fresh water as needed with a HF 12 volt transfer pump. We use that when we go dry camping in the state parks by us. We dont have to stand in line to get water and filling up the tank is much easier. We use bottled water for making coffee or drinking.
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Old 08-22-2022, 05:13 AM   #26
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DavidAndDonna View Post
We just got back from a 3 month trip to Alaska and we boondocked every chance we could, which was ALOT. We had a total of about 44 camp sites and about 30 of those were boondocking. The trip was planned around boondocking, we prefer this type of camping. Knock on wood we never experienced any sort of problems hauling a full tank of fresh water. Be conservative with your water, and have fun!
That sounds amazing! Thanks.
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Old 08-22-2022, 05:17 AM   #27
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Originally Posted by rlh1957 View Post
Fill your FW tank and use as intended. My placard on side of trailer has payload including FW & HW tanks filled and grey and black empty.

We use our toilet at rest stops and fuel stops to avoid public facilities.
How are you going to travel with empty FW tank? You get somewhere or pull over and have No water to wash or flush? Ridiculous.
It is safe to travel with FW in the tank.
We wouldn't have bought if Keystone had advised no FW in tank or the weight placard didn’t include water.
I like to be able to pull over for the wife to use our trailer versus public facilities. I at least know where (or who) the toilet seat has serviced.
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Old 08-22-2022, 10:55 AM   #28
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Funny you mention that show. That’s the reason we are stopping in Waco (Chip and Joanna Gaines’ show and the silos) and then on to Laurel. We have watched all their remodeling shows and thought it would be fun to visit.

As for me, I really want to eat at the Bird Dog Cafe that they remodeled in Laurel.
hope you can drop trailer somewhere outside Waco, parking around the Silos is rough. When there try also to visit Clint Harps place nearby. There is a store in front of his shop. if going north from Waco, try the Catfish Plantation restaurant in Waxahachie (1.25 hours North and a little east). Small place, supposedly haunted but very good food.
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Old 08-22-2022, 11:06 AM   #29
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I have a 2020 Passport 3100QB and I travel regular with my freshwater tank full (43 gallons). I figure if it’s full the water will not move as much. I called Keystone and they said I can travel with it full but recommend not doing it.
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Old 08-22-2022, 11:25 AM   #30
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I have a 2020 Passport 3100QB and I travel regular with my freshwater tank full (43 gallons). I figure if it’s full the water will not move as much. I called Keystone and they said I can travel with it full but recommend not doing it.
That's about 360 lbs hanging off the bottom of your camper. I take what I think I might need. Usually about 15 gal max if not headed to try camping.
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Old 08-25-2022, 05:23 AM   #31
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Originally Posted by Gkri View Post
hope you can drop trailer somewhere outside Waco, parking around the Silos is rough. When there try also to visit Clint Harps place nearby. There is a store in front of his shop. if going north from Waco, try the Catfish Plantation restaurant in Waxahachie (1.25 hours North and a little east). Small place, supposedly haunted but very good food.
Thanks for the suggestion. We plan on finding a decent RV site to stay at for two nights just out of town while there so as to not be tethered to our TT while checking out the sights.
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Old 08-25-2022, 06:38 AM   #32
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Originally Posted by rlh1957 View Post
Fill your FW tank and use as intended. My placard on side of trailer has payload including FW & HW tanks filled and grey and black empty.

We use our toilet at rest stops and fuel stops to avoid public facilities.
How are you going to travel with empty FW tank? You get somewhere or pull over and have No water to wash or flush? Ridiculous.
It is safe to travel with FW in the tank.
We wouldn't have bought if Keystone had advised no FW in tank or the weight placard didn’t include water.
We originally got into RV'ing so DW would have access to a toilet on wheels (well not entirely true as to why but that's the story I'm sticking to).

We have always traveled with FW (sometimes full and sometimes low) depending on our route.

The Raptor has 94 gallons of FW capacity and an on-demand water heater. We stayed in Yellowstone and found out that with the cold ground water, we could only get 97 deg F for showers. Switched to the tank/water pump, where the water wasn't so cold, and we got 120 deg F.

I suspected that the on-demand was going to have some downsides but live and learn. Supposedly the water heater has a flow control valve to increase the water temp by slowing the flow through the water heater (not all models and if course not mine), I couldn't find the valve/regulator.

So the plan for extended stays in the future is to top off the fresh tank each morning so we have plenty of "not so cold ground water" to keep the temp up for evening showers.
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Old 08-27-2022, 04:44 AM   #33
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Originally Posted by DavidAndDonna View Post
We just got back from a 3 month trip to Alaska and we boondocked every chance we could, which was ALOT. We had a total of about 44 camp sites and about 30 of those were boondocking. The trip was planned around boondocking, we prefer this type of camping. Knock on wood we never experienced any sort of problems hauling a full tank of fresh water. Be conservative with your water, and have fun!
That would be a “dream trip” for us. I grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska, but unfortunately haven’t been back since 1989.
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